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Dr. Clifford Hall is a professor in the dairy and food science department at South Dakota State University. He also oversees research on pulse quality and utilization of pulses in food systems. Over the years, Dr. Hall has mentored several students completing research on peas, lentils, and chickpeas. These projects range from including pulses in extruded snacks to using aquafaba as an egg replacer to looking at the functional properties of pulse flours and other pulse fortified products. Dr. Hall has also overseen the annual U.S. Pulse Quality Survey since 2014. He shares how this information is used by the industry, what trends he is seeing in food applications for pulse crops, and where pulses fit into the nutrient density conversation. “  If you are someone that looks at I want to sell the flour, I'm likely going to go to the functionality test, the water absorption index that tells you how much water the pulse can absorb. And that would be important if you want to make, say a gluten-free cookie or you want to put it in a wheat bread. So I think those are really kind of the ones that a lot of times the most interest is in the protein and then some of these functional properties.” - Dr Cliff Hall This Week on Growing Pulse Crops: Meet Dr. Clifford Hall, a professor in the dairy and food science department at South Dakota State UniversityDiscover possible new applications for pulse crops as a food additive and the benefits they offer processors Explore the data illustrated in the annual U.S. Pulse Quality Survey and how this information can be used in the pulse crop industry Growing Pulse Crops is produced by Dr. Audrey Kalil and hosted by Tim Hammerich of the Future of Agriculture Podcast.

Greg Stamp is the seed sales manager at Stamp Seeds, which he runs with his two brothers, Matthew and Nathan. Stamp Seeds grows and processes retail pedigreed seed for about 60 different crops based out of Enchant, Alberta. Included in that long list of crops are some pulses like peas, chickpeas, lentils, and our subject for today’s episode, faba beans. Greg shares all things faba beans including markets, varieties, agronomic practices, pest and disease considerations, harvesting and more.  “ The market I think where there's some value is domestic. It's the people that are fractionating and it's the trend, you know, what's the next new hot protein? Past peas, it's faba beans… They're higher protein than peas and so that's why they want to use them. And then they have a different taste and flavor profile and fractionation. So that's why they're going that way. And so you're going to see more and more of them used in food products as time goes on.” - Greg Stamp This Week on Growing Pulse Crops: Meet Greg Stamp, the seed sales manager at Stamp SeedsDiscover all things faba beans including markets, varieties, agronomic practices and more.Explore unique techniques for pest management of faba beansListen to referenced guest Chuck Penner discuss drivers of supply and demand for pulse cropsReview integrated pest management with Dr. Hector Carcamo from a previous episodeVisit Stampseeds.com to learn more about faba beans Growing Pulse Crops is produced by Dr. Audrey Kalil and hosted by Tim Hammerich of the Future of Agriculture Podcast. 

Greg Bartley is the director of crop protection and crop quality at Pulse Canada. He’s an agronomist by training and a certified crop advisor who has been with Pulse Canada for over six years. Bartley discusses the Keep It Clean Program in Canada, the value and challenges associated with Maximum Residue Limits (MRLs), some helpful information about desiccants and how various perceptions about chemicals are impacting the global trade of pulses.  “ Things are changing. What's been happening within the past five years is not going to be what's happened in the next five years. So even though this is what you did on your farm two years ago. These MRL policies and just policies in general are ever evolving, you need to pay attention and recognize that sometimes things are changing. The level of testing that's going on within the industry is unreal. So if you were doing something two years ago chances are it may not be acceptable moving forward.” - Greg Bartley This Week on Growing Pulse Crops: Greg Bartley is the director of crop protection and crop quality at Pulse CanadaDiscover the Canadian Keep It Clean Program and what is involved in participatingExplore the limitations and significance of Maximum Residue Limit policyLearn about strategy for timing and use of desiccation products for pulse crops Growing Pulse Crops is supported by the Northern Pulse Growers Association, produced by Dr. Audrey Kalil and hosted by Tim Hammerich of the Future of Agriculture Podcast. 

Dr. Michael Wunsch is a Plant Pathologist at the Carrington Research Extension Center at North Dakota State University. He holds a Ph.D. from Cornell University in 2010, and has worked for NDSU ever since, focused on disease management problems on a wide breadth of crops grown in North Dakota.  This episode is a follow up to the last episode where Michael focused on understanding disease biology and diagnosis of Ascochyta Blight of chickpea. Today we’re going to go deeper into what it takes to control ascochyta, and specifically how to optimize fungicide applications. When it comes to managing fungal diseases, fungicide resistance is a growing and very concerning issue. Just like you may have heard about herbicide resistance in weed management, we are seeing the same problems in fungal diseases: spraying the same group of chemistries that attack a site in a fungus eventually leads to individuals that mutate. That mutation in the fungus persists as those that are susceptible die off and that leaves room for the resistant strains to proliferate. This happens over time, but at first it can seem negligible, until the resistant strains take over and it appears to happen over night. So today, Michael is going to walk us through three critical areas of fungal disease management: product choice, timing and droplet size.  “  So essentially what you want to do is you want to spray your tank mix at early bloom before your first rain as you get into bloom. We're talking at that point, you're typically looking at absolute trace levels of disease. Your goal is to keep it from spreading because at that stage you can control it.” - Michael Wunsch, Ph.D. This Week on Growing Pulse Crops: Hear from Dr. Michael Wunsch, a Plant Pathologist at the Carrington Research Extension Center at North Dakota State University.Explore  what it takes to control ascochyta in chickpeaUnderstand how to optimize fungicide applications, including product considerations, timing and nozzle settings Growing Pulse Crops is produced by Dr. Audrey Kalil and hosted by Tim Hammerich of the Future of Agriculture Podcast.

Dr. Michael Wunsch is a Plant Pathologist at the Carrington Research Extension Center at North Dakota State University. He holds a Ph.D. from Cornell University in 2010, and has worked for NDSU ever since, focused on disease management problems on a wide breadth of crops grown in North Dakota. In this episode, Wunsch provides us with a lot of helpful details about Ascochyta Blight of chickpea, including some of the historical impacts of the disease, how it spreads, the range of hosts, the process to diagnosing it, and how we distinguish it from another common pathogen called Botrytis. Stay tuned for part two of this conversation where we will discuss how to optimize fungicide applications for this disease. “ You have some degree of Ascochyta in that field, whether it's catastrophic level or a trace level. Those chickpea residues, they're lying in that field, especially now that we're no-till and none of them are buried. They overwinter and that overwintering cycle induces the pathogen to form a different type of fruiting structure, which enables the pathogen to more quickly overcome management tools, whether that's host resistance or fungicides. And this produces spores that actually are emitted with some degree of force and they will get taken up by air currents and they can move hundreds of miles.” - Michael Wunsch, Ph.D. This Week on Growing Pulse Crops: Hear from Dr. Michael Wunsch, a Plant Pathologist at the Carrington Research Extension Center at North Dakota State University.Explore more details about the life cycle, hosts, and diagnosis of AscochytaUnderstand the differences between Botrytis and Ascochyta and the significance in making the distinction between the two Growing Pulse Crops is produced by Dr. Audrey Kalil and hosted by Tim Hammerich of the Future of Agriculture Podcast. 

Dr. Sabine Banniza is a professor of pulse crop pathology and a member of the Crop Development Centre (CDC) at the University of Saskatchewan. Her research program is focused on pulse crop pathology with particular emphasis on problems in Saskatchewan. The overarching theme of Dr. Banniza’s research program is to study the biology of fungal and bacterial pathogens and their interaction with host plants. In today’s episode, Dr. Banniza focuses on two important diseases in lentil: Anthracnose and Stemphylium blight. She is an expert on the pathogen biology and plant-pathogen interactions, and she gives us a lot of useful background on when they first started appearing in Canada, how problematic they are, and how to diagnose and manage each of these.  “ Using all of the molecular tools we have now, we’re trying to get that resistance from the wild relative into our cultivated species, and then breed race zero resistance as well. Because I think that will help a lot, and it’s really needed in particular now that we see these issues with fungicide insensitivity .” - Sabine Banniza, Ph.D. This Week on Growing Pulse Crops: Meet Sabine Banniza, Ph.D., professor of pulse crop pathology and a member of the Crop Development Centre (CDC) at the University of Saskatchewan.Explore two important diseases in lentil: Anthracnose and Stemphylium blight.Understand the pathogen biology and plant-pathogen interactions of these two lentil diseasesDiscover useful background on when these diseases first started appearing in Canada, how problematic they are, and how to diagnose and manage each of them.  Growing Pulse Crops is produced by Dr. Audrey Kalil and hosted by Tim Hammerich of the Future of Agriculture Podcast. 

Kyle Okke is an independent crop consultant in Dickinson, North Dakota with his own company, Agile Agronomy. Before starting Agile Agronomy three years ago, he had worked for several years as a regional agronomist in the area with Winfield United. Kyle deals with a wide variety of crops in his area including pulse crops, specifically lentils, chickpeas and field peas. He also has farmer clients that grow durum, wheat, flax, canola, corn, soybeans and sunflowers. In this episode, he discusses the various details about products, timing, water rates, adjuvants, and other considerations for controlling broadleaf weeds. “ You get what you get as far as options for broadleaf control in pulse crops. So there's no perfect product in a broadleaf sense on a post emergent basis. So you're never always going to have excellent activity in everything. That's why there's so much emphasis on fall residuals and spring applied residuals, because that's going to do a lot of the heavy lifting for you that hopefully either you don't apply post-emerge products, or if you do, you keep the weeds small enough that you get the activity you need out of those post-emerge broad leaf products.” - Kyle Okke This Week on Growing Pulse Crops: Meet Kyle Okke, an independent crop consultant in Dickinson, North Dakota with his own company, Agile AgronomyExplore the many considerations needed to be addressed to manage broadleaf weedsUnderstand the value of finding weeds early and selecting the correct surfactants for the type of weed you are targetingDiscover how certain chemicals can uniquely work together to enhance weed control Growing Pulse Crops is produced by Dr. Audrey Kalil and hosted by Tim Hammerich of the Future of Agriculture Podcast. 

Dr. Kevin McPhee is a pulse crop breeder at Montana State University. He’s been there for just over eight years after building a similar program in pulse crop breeding at North Dakota State University. Prior to that, he was working on pulse crops with the USDA ARS based in Pullman, Washington. Together we discuss the pulse crop breeding program in Montana, including their goals for the program in pea, chickpea and lentils. He describes varieties they’ve released and what’s in the pipeline that growers might want to know about for the future.  “  What really separates the winter peas from the spring peas and gives them the advantage is when we have a dry year and there isn't the in-season moisture rains for the spring crop. With the winter peas already in the ground…they don't have to worry about planting them in the spring. That's one big advantage. And then they can take advantage of all of the winter moisture that's in the soil and any of the spring rains that occur. They flower a month ahead of the spring types. So they're well on their way before we get into the heat of the summer and the potential dry conditions, and that's where they shine.” - Dr. Kevin McPhee This Week on Growing Pulse Crops: Meet Dr. Kevin McPhee, a pulse crop breeder at Montana State UniversityDiscover new pulse crop varieties that are being introduced and the benefits they offer producersExplore major advantages offered by winter peas that may benefit producers looking to be more water efficient Growing Pulse Crops is produced by Dr. Audrey Kalil and hosted by Tim Hammerich of the Future of Agriculture Podcast. 

Chris Holzapfel is the research manager at the Indian Head Agricultural Research Foundation (IHARF). IHARF is a producer-led not-for-profit organization based in Indian Head, Saskatchewan. Their mandate is to provide extension type work for agricultural research and demonstration, including a lot of work with pulse crops.  Holzapfel started in his role at IHARF in 2005 and over the years they've grown to now conducting 40 to 50 small plot trials as well as some field scale research on crops relevant to the area. He shares some of the research they’ve done with seeding rates, fertility and with supplementing phosphorus in particular.  “ Phosphorus is, without a doubt, by a large margin, the most important nutrient to manage. That's the one that we've gotten the most consistent responses to in our work…You know with phosphorus you're almost fertilizing the soil as much as you are the plants.” - Chris Holzapfel This Week on Growing Pulse Crops: Meet Chris Holzapfel, the research manager at the Indian Head Agricultural Research Foundation (IHARF)Discover the soil and weather particulars of the Saskatchewan regionExplore the research being done to evaluate different seeding rates and their impact on competing with different weed populationsLearn about the potential benefits of a phosphorus supplement and how to evaluate its benefit on your operationRead more about IHARF at their website Growing Pulse Crops is produced by Dr. Audrey Kalil and hosted by Tim Hammerich of the Future of Agriculture Podcast. 

Dr. Brian Jenks is a weed scientist at North Dakota State University based in Minot. Jenks has been in this role since 1997 and over that time he has seen an alarming rise in resistance to many of our herbicides from certain weeds, especially in kochia. In this episode, Jenks shares about the latest in kochia management including what’s working and not working, which products have built up resistance and which products are still effective. We also talk about a few other key weeds like palmer amaranth, wild oat and green foxtail.  “ And if there's anybody listening who's thinking about using Tough on lentil, please call me before you use it because there's some things that you need to know. I mean just reading the label, you're not going to have sufficient information because all they say on there is spray 6 to 20 ounces and oh, by the way, you can tank mix with Metribuzin. Well, that is a recipe for potential disaster if you do that. Because we need to talk rates, we need to talk timing, we need to talk adjuvants, and I'm encouraging growers to do this only as a last resort because you will see severe injury.” - Dr. Brian Jenks This Week on Growing Pulse Crops: Meet Dr. Brian Jenks, a weed scientist at North Dakota State University based in Minot, NDDiscover the rising risk of herbicide resistance in weed management especially with the weed kochiaLearn the process to evaluate the type of kochia resistance producers may be facing and how to get that service for freeUnderstand the significance of a weed being on the noxious weed list and the impact that has on producersContact Dr. Brian Jenks with any of your weed biology or herbicide questions at (701) 857-7677 Growing Pulse Crops is produced by Dr. Audrey Kalil and hosted by Tim Hammerich of the Future of Agriculture Podcast. 

After a tough year in 2023, agronomist Jeannie Rude and Northeast Montana farmer Blake Rasmussen were part of a project to create a video about their experiences with Real Ag Radio’s Shaun Haney. That video documented the far reaching impacts root rot can have on farmers and the local community.  Blake is a fifth generation farmer on an operation that has included lentils and chickpeas in their rotations for the past 25 years. He has also been an active member of the Northern Pulse Growers Association for the past five years. Jeannie Rude is an agronomist with Pro Coop also located in northeast Montana.  She returns to the podcast time with Blake to share their experiences with root rots.  “ The root diseases impact the lentil crop and that has an impact on the grower, the health of their soils, and the health of their farm economics. We just got this awesome Columbia grain pulse facility completed in the last few years. So it affects everything from the soil health right down to Main Street in this community.” - Jeannie Rude This Week on Growing Pulse Crops: Meet Northeast Montana farmer Blake Rasmussen and hear again from Northeast Montana agronomist Jeannie RudeDiscover the impact Blake had while participating in the Gulf Food Show in DubaiExplore the longterm challenges root rots presents for producers and the lack of information regarding it for how to manage itLearn about the efforts being made to better identify the cause of these issues and what can be done to improve their management Watch the video featuring Jeannie and Blake on the Real Agriculture YouTube channel coordinated by the Pulse Crops Working Group with funding from the North Central IPM Center.  Growing Pulse Crops is produced by Dr. Audrey Kalil and hosted by Tim Hammerich of the Future of Agriculture Podcast. 

Dr. Ian Burke is a weed scientist at Washington State University. His work focuses on weed biology and ecology, and he does a lot of work with herbicides. Dr. Burke discusses his research evaluating herbicides for use in peas, lentils and chickpeas and how to manage herbicide carry over issues that can impact these crops. This is the deep dive into herbicide carry over that you might not have even realized you needed. “ We have not enough moisture during the summer to break down the herbicides and not enough heat units during the winter to break down the herbicides. So we really have sort of a perfect storm, a very unique situation, in the United States where herbicides applied in our important rotational crop like wheat persists for far longer than than anywhere else.”  - Ian Burke, Ph.D. This Week on Growing Pulse Crops: Meet Ian Burke, Ph.D. and learn about cropping systems in his area of the Pacific NorthwestUnderstand herbicide carryover and the factors that causes herbicide persistence like the characteristics of the products themselves, environmental conditions, and soil propertiesDiscover how farmers can manage herbicide carryover while still maintaining the efficacy of their herbicide program.  Growing Pulse Crops is produced by Dr. Audrey Kalil and hosted by Tim Hammerich of the Future of Agriculture Podcast. 

Paul Kanning is a farmer in Montana who grows mostly red lentils and yellow peas as well as wheat and canola. He also serves as the chairman of the USA Dry Pea and Lentil Council. Lewi Crow is a Risk Management Specialist with the USDA Risk Management Agency that services Wyoming, Montana and the Dakotas. Lewi and Paul talk about the importance of RMA and crop insurance, but also the process behind developing crop insurance programs for pulse crops.  “ As an individual farmer, I have to provide them data and the way I do that is by making transactions, right? And so selling pulses in the fall helps establish the harvest price for the fall. That's the only way that they can come up with the data is by farmers putting product out in the stream… That makes the whole wheel turn.” - Paul Kanning  ”...some of the things that I do with that is reviewing plant dates, basically just kind of pulling apart crop programs and reviewing all aspects of it that goes on with rates and t-yields for individual counties, rotation requirements, various things that farmers tend to encounter when choosing crop insurance.”  - Lewi Crow  This Week on Growing Pulse Crops: Meet Paul Kanning, a pulse crop farmer in Montana and the chairman of the USA Dry Pea and Lentil Council, and Lewi Crow, a Risk Management Specialist with the USDA Risk Management Agency Understand what the RMA provides for producers and the insight they can offer when making production decisionsMake a note of these important dates:January 15th is when the harvest price is released Beginning of March is when projected prices for this 2025 crop year are releasedMarch 15th is the sales closing date for most of the spring seeded crops so Lewi recommends reviewing your crop insurance prior to that date  Growing Pulse Crops is produced by Dr. Audrey Kalil and hosted by Tim Hammerich of the Future of Agriculture Podcast. 

Chuck Penner founded Leftfield Commodity Research in 2010. The company provides market analysis and economic research focused on the crops that are important to farmers in Western Canada and the northern parts of the US. Penner shares about the global marketplace for peas, chickpeas and lentils. This episode was recorded on January 10th, 2025. “ One of the things that I've been telling Canadian farmers… is to forget about being the only show in town anymore. Now you have Australia producing more red lentils than Canada does. You have Russia, you have Kazakhstan, and you have the US production going up there as well too…So you need to think globally about not just demand, but the supplies as well.” - Chuck Penner Penner shares about drivers both on the supply side and the demand side that are impacting the trajectory of these global and domestic markets. Through his many newsletters and research projects he aims to keep producers informed about the current state of industries they need to know about. He shares the potential impact on the pulse crop market of different tariffs and what that could mean for producers “ In some ways geopolitics is a factor that's always there, but this year it's kind of amped up a lot and not just in Canadian-US trade, but Canada and India and Canada and China and those types of things where you have potential for those sudden moves.”  - Chuck Penner This Week on Growing Pulse Crops: Meet Chuck Penner founder of Leftfield Commodity Research where they provide market analysis and economic research focused on the crops in Western Canada and the northern parts of the USExplore the potential impact of tariffs on the pulse crop markets and what producers need to knowDiscover the growing global pulse crop markets and the impact that can have on North American prices Growing Pulse Crops is produced by Dr. Audrey Kalil and hosted by Tim Hammerich of the Future of Agriculture Podcast. 

Dr. Clain Jones is Montana State University Extension’s soil fertility specialist. In this role he covers anything that has to do with fertilizer or nutrient cycling in both agriculture as well as home/garden systems. He started at MSU as a tenure track faculty member in 2006, and has ended up doing quite a bit of work with pulse crops over the years. He joins me today to talk about fertility in pulses, the importance of inoculation, nitrogen credits, soil pH, and the overall importance of pulse crops to soil health. “Adding five pounds of sulfur per acre to lentils, what we found at least here in Bozeman, was that nitrogen fixation increased at a much faster rate than yield did. What that told us was that by applying sulfur, maybe we're not going to see a huge yield response, but we're going to contribute a lot more nitrogen both to that crop and to the next crop.” - Dr. Clain Jones Dr. Jones stresses the importance of plant nutrition and pH when it comes to optimizing a pulse crop's ability to fix nitrogen. Limestone deposits in the soil can make pH values highly variable even within a field. This can make accurate soil testing a challenge. An acidic pH has a significant impact on rhizobia viability as they don’t tolerate low pH values very well. Along with pH, many micronutrients such as sulfur, potassium and phosphorus also need to be considered when assessing overall soil health and nitrogen fixation efficiency. “We have low phosphorus because our high levels of calcium tie up that phosphorus making it less available to crops. Knowing that phosphorus is essential for nitrogen fixation, my gut feel is that phosphorus is probably the nutrient most limiting nitrogen fixation and probably pulse crop growth in our two state region.”  - Dr. Clain Jones This Week on Growing Pulse Crops: Meet Dr. Clain Jones, the Montana State University Extension’s soil fertility specialistDiscover the impact of pH and micronutrients on a pulse crop’s ability to fix nitrogenExplore the recommended testing and values of soil nutrition to allow for optimal nitrogen fixation Growing Pulse Crops is produced by Dr. Audrey Kalil and hosted by Tim Hammerich of the Future of Agriculture Podcast.